Nadler: Pentagon Not Deserving of Another Blank Check for Iraq War

Washington, DC -- Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today voted against the House version of the Department of Defense reauthorization bill, stating, among other objections to the bill, that he could not support a $25 billion blank check to the Pentagon.  Nadler's statement on his vote follows:

"President Bush has severely mishandled a war he started based on exaggerated information he knew to be false, thus putting our troops in harms way and increasing tensions in the region.  Our troops are now involved in a quagmire of the President's making. 

"We are spending the taxpayers' money on things that should not be priorities.  I cannot support a bill that wastes over $10 billion on an anti-ballistic missile defense system that threatens our security more than it protects it.   The bill also does not authorize nearly enough funding to secure nuclear materials in the former Soviet Union to prevent them from falling into the hands of terrorists. 

"Moreover, I cannot support legislation that provides a $25 billion blank check to the President and Pentagon to further carry out their misguided policies in Iraq without any apparent strategy to change to a course that does not lead to an endless war against a nationalist insurgency that will waste our youth, drain our treasury, and divert our resources from fighting the real enemy -- the Islamic terrorists."

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